SMALL FRUITS. 313 
that on and cultivating between the rows, it keeps the black- 
berry root in just the right condition. 
Mr. Curtis: How about planting your berries an equal distance 
apart each way and cultivating them both ways—does that pay 
you? 
Mr. Thayer: No, I do not think it does. It requires too 
much ground and is too expensive in supporting them. I prefer 
to plant in rows near together. My raspberries are planted 
two and a half feet apart, and my blackberries three feet apart. 
Then they are supported on each side by wires. I believe I 
have stated that my plantation is about eighty rods long, and 
every twelve rods I have a ten foot alley, and at the end of each 
row I put a post to which my wires are attached. These wires 
rest on nails driven into stakes placed between the posts, and it 
keeps them up in close compact form for mulching, harrowing, 
cultivating and picking. You see, they are all up out of the 
way. 
Mrs. Kennedy: How high do you put the stakes? 
Mr. Thayer: My stakes are usually five feet long. I drive 
nails in them according to the height of the plants in that par- 
ticular row. Some canes will be two or three feet high, and 
some only a foot or two high. When wired on each side, it 
keeps them up in shape, and we can work under them and get 
under them and dig very nicely in that way. I use a post at’ 
each end of the row. My rows are twelve or thirteen rods 
long, and between these posts I use nine stakes, four on the 
west side and five on the east side, in which nails are driven. 
The wires rest on these nails. 
Mr. Sampson: Will it make any difference at which end you 
commence to lay those plants down? 
Mr. Thayer: It is very necessary that you commence at the 
north. We always commence at the north end of the row, and 
move the dirt from the north side. Ihave a four-tined fork 
which I made by taking an ordinary fork and removing the 
two center tines, and one of my men takes this fork and places 
it down near the base and raises it up, and thus gathers all the 
laterals in together, while another man with a spading fork in- 
serted right near the root turns it over with very little break- 
age. In seasons where it is as dry as we had this year, | think 
this way is a decided improvement. 
A member: Do you turn the first hill to the north and then 
lay the next one on top of that? 
